I knew Jackie when we were in high school
I used to like her but I never had a shot.
She was warm, had a way with words.
The girls hated her, the boys did not.

Then she called me one night upset all a mess.
She said 'I can't stay here,'
So I leant her some money for a plane ride far from home.

Jackie moved to Rome, Italy.
She Got married and she had two kids.
Had a husband the worked in finance.
He punched her up when he caught his mistress
She went home. She was confused and alone with her kids
and when he showed up on her Michigan porch,
She took him right back in.

Some people don't know a thing
Some people don't learn a thing
Until they have walked to the very end of the street

Caught up with Jackie just a few months back now.
Saw her out throwing darts on a monday.
Turns out her Roman living in Michigan
said he loved her but he just couldn't settle.
Well she laughed, wiped the lipstick off of her glass
and said the funny thing is that settling in
is the business I've been in.

Some people don't know a thing
Some people don't learn a thing
Until they have walked to the very end of the street

Now I'm riding out clean across town now.
Of to Jackie's with two bottles of wine.
I helped her back on her feet for a while
It's a funny thing after so much time
Well I knocked. And her door opened up just an inch.
She said 'Hey there friend can you call me tomorrow?
Tonight I am not alone."

Some people don't know a thing
Some people don't learn a thing
Until they have walked to the very end of the street

EVERY TIME

Pulling up the shade again,
the sunlight hits the room and the dust I see there,
everything that hangs in the air -
Memories and wasted years
and half a life of oh so nears
that float there so plain in the day -
It leaves me with some restless feeling I know
like a vacant lot that's in my veins, and it goes

Every time it gets a hold of me
Every time it gets a hold on me love
Every time it gets a hold of me
Every time it gets a hold, I want you to know
There's nothing in this world for me.
Nothing in the world or where its going,
Nothing in this world I want to know.

What a change when you and me
have walked an hour against the sea
and slept in the sand,
where it sticks to the back of my hand.
Every word that seemed a tomb, says
'Let me back in to that room,
I've got something new.
It's a girl and we're coming for you.
Feels like I don't know a thing
but it'd a diamond mine in every vein.
From without, well, it might look the same but,

Every time it gets a hold of me
Every time it gets a hold on me love
Every time it gets a hold of me
Every time it gets a hold, I want you to know
There's nothing in this world for me.
Nothing in the world or where its going,
Nothing in this world I need to know.

SMALL TIME

Honey it ain't no big deal.
It's just a matter of small time.
The small time that it takes to keep your attentions
all alone with mine.
Even if you stayed right now,
even if you crossed a line,
Honey it ain't no big deal.
It's just a matter of small time

I walked a while when we hung up,
looking at the row houses.
I remember the time you lost your room key
for a laugh.

Wonderful when you were here.
Wonderful if you were mine.
Honey it ain't no big deal.
It's just a matter of small time.

NIGHT IS YOUNG

Awake on a bus riding north of Chicago
up a blank interstate passing billboards in the night,
got one eye half closed so nobody tries to ask me
"What's the time?" "Where you going?" while they're reaching for their light.

Half an hour ago the sun
was going down behind a thin line of trees,
blood-orange blinking through, like the color
of my girl's necklace flashing through her collar
on the night that I met her coming in and out of view.

The night is young its no mistake.
Like the snow when it first hits the ground
and its only your and mine to make
So my darling why wouldn't we now?
It's a half drunk fist in the face,
It's a love that can't be overthrown
you want under your chin
when the moon goes dim
in the dead of a night so young.

I walk out into the street with short shadows from the moon
where electric lights are off.
And the girls girls girls pop their collars in the cold
and a few third shifters cross the street to punch the clock.
Well it was a long time looking for somebody
I could talk on, lean on, find something to start.
Got to walk on walk with another minute passing
while the road that we're going up seems to come and come apart.

The night is young its no mistake.
Like the snow first lays on the ground
and its only your and mine to make
So my darling why wouldn't we now?
It's a half drunk fist in the face,
It's a love that can't be overthrown
you want under your chin
when the moon goes dim
in the dead of a night so young.

The night is young its no mistake
and the world seems like a far off joke.
You're talking to me for my sake
and all memory going up in smoke
It's a half drunk fist in the face,
It's a love that can't be overthrown
you want under your chin
when the moon goes dim
in the dead of a night so young.

NOT STRANGERS ANYMORE

I don't care about the way you live your life
I don't care about the way you make your tea
I've never bothered with details of racy nights
if that's being selfish that's just me
But I know that when you walk into a room
the weather changes seven colors in a beat
might as well have my shirt undone to my waist
sleepwalking down the street

We're not strangers anymore

Some kinds of beauty want to knock me on my back
staring up into a spot stained ceiling for weeks
through the cabinets try to find the cleanest glass
and lean a fist against my cheek
Then every memory in my mind has lost its edge
like I'm supposed to know there's no going back for me
Nowhere to turn but to some untouched world ahead
All I can do is find my feet

Because we're not strangers anymore

If I was to get walk out into some dark woods
looking for heaven on earth if I could find it
in some flaming bird that I saw in your face in your voice in the tall waves of a Turner painting. If I found it would I curse the whole thing for jumping straight out of my hand when I held it for a half second. What would I say if it all disappeared
What would I say?
what can I say?
We're not strangers anymore.

NOWHERE TO START

I'm almost off to bed
and the grass is shimmering dew.
Looking for a tune to fill my head
thinking silly thoughts about you
and it's good to be alive
when I've got you on my mind.

The streetlights up ahead
as I walk down this cement
illuminate some little things you said
and a couple things you meant
in a passing stranger's eye,
in every car I am walking by.

The daybreak is still miles away
from taking the place of what is overhead,
but it moves just like something almost being said.
When I think of you, the road I'm on
is like some house I built all alone
and filled it up with the things I loved
that now I can't get out of.

You see this house I built?
Two hands and the world around?
Look out. Look out.
I'm going to burn it to the ground.

Don't want to keep in mind
any places that I have been
there's nowhere nowhere
there's nowhere to start but start again.

It was not quite summer yet
when I walked out on some pier
with a new girl that I'd met
and a stomach full of beer
and told how it was going to be
if not for her at least for me.

we were always planting seeds
we didn't know it but we were
with every little thing we did
with every little him and her
and they grew without a sound
into the dark woods all around.

Well I stood there tonight in the window of your room
and the rooftops were rubies If I looked out right
and all the debris of the world I knew
was laying below in a weird moonlight.
You talked to me, and you had no idea
but every word you said landed square on my chin
and I could not wait for you to pick me up, stand me up
and knock me over again.

You see this house I built?
So long before I met you?
Look out. Look out.
There's a wrecking ball coming through
I thought I'd found a little piece of my brain
I thought I had a little place to lie in
There's nowhere, nowhere
nowhere to start but start again.

FAIRFAX 10:40pm

A secondhand red sweater on the back of chair
the only thing to remind me of the times you sat there
and I've been meaning to remove it for the past several days
but there's so many things to remember.

There were a few short minutes when I thought to myself
while you were standing boiling water, lost in some thought
that we could really dig in and make this go someplace else
but there's so many things you can do in a day.

Where does it go? It's just another afternoon
with our backs on the wood. Where does it go?
I've got the awfullest feeling something is going by so good.

LEARNED TO FORGET

He was a high school graduate
booking a club on an empty street.
She was a drop out MFA, grass-brown hair
and stockings on her feet.
It was hard not to feel like the rock that he'd been pushing
started rolling downhill waking up 6 days in a row
and talking with a woman he wanted to know.

There were kids down on the corner standing for an hour.
He'd never thought a minute for what they talked about,
but he saw a thing or two with her
and the things of this world came alive where they were.
So he walked down for a minute listened to their story,
watched them getting in it, boring boring boring
when he crawled off to say that's it,
he crawled off with her and learned to forget.

Oh heavenly day.
They're going to meet up at half past three.
He's going to skip out of work
eat breakfast in his old grand prix.
Well he'd spent so much time
like a man all alone in the minute of his prime,
barely knew what to do
with the math of a woman making one out of two.

There's was TV in the corner hour after hour
never cared a minute for what they talked about
but he saw a thing or two with her
and the whole wide world started calling him 'sir.'
He was turning up the volume, listening to the story
twenty people calling, boring boring boring
when he crawled off to say that's it,
he crawled off with her and learned to forget.

He knew himself oh he knew himself a bit
he said when this starts going uphill
when it starts, I'll probably forget
what it's like spending time
with a power plant running up the nerve of my spine.
It loses edge like softening chalk.
Let me learn it like an infant crawling off to walk.

Where there's kids down on the corner hour over hour
never stood a minute for what they talk about
but I see a thing or two with you
and the whole wide world seems worth looking into
if we walk down for a minute listen to their story
watch them getting in it
boring boring boring
and we crawl off to say that's it
let me crawl off with you and learn to forget.

I DRANK BOURBON AFTER I BRUSHED MY TEETH LAST NIGHT

I drank bourbon after I brushed my teeth last night.
I had just walked down the hall, and went to turn out the light
when an old picture of you fell out of a book i was carrying to bed.
I drank bourbon after I brushed my teeth last night.

Some people think they know you better than they do.
They will talk to you at work and even after work too.
Laughing at the bar with a world ten years away in your head.
Some people think they know you better than they do.

There are so many things I'd tell you if I could.
I'd talk as plain as apples on a paper plate I would.
I'd tell you where my heads at now
but it wouldn't do any good.
There are so many things to tell you if I could.

I guess I am grateful to keep you on my mind.
Some part of me is so willing to be trainwrecked anytime.
My heart still beats as fast as when your face was every light.
I drank bourbon after I brushed my teeth last night.

THE WORLD AWAITS US ALL

Walking through the morning
barely anyone to watch this scene
Milk trucks of manhattan
and the winter branches tipped with green
But the season is going somewhere
spring to spring and fall to fall
He thinks he'll walk a little further
because the world awaits us all

3 o'clock and cloudy
bars are open down on Rivington street
no call no show to work today
wonder if his girl can get something to eat
well that job just took the breath from him
and the paycheck never sat too tall
he wants to give that girl the best he's got
because the world awaits us all

Through the afternoon sitting on the steps drinking coffee
such a fine thing having someone there when you call
where do you want to be? sleeping on some beach in tahiti?
Well you never know baby cause the world awaits us all.

Sun sets over Chelsea
It's been so long since he has seen it here.
Red light on the backs of strangers
that he follows while he's walking near.
And it all seems so familiar
like some hanging apple bound to fall
but he's looking out for something else,
Because the world awaits us all.

Standing on the beach watching all the waves where they are crashing
throwing every shell, shipwreck-hell, and cannonball
back against the sand, grind them into sand where we are walking.
Come on stick with me, because the world awaits us all

Shovel in the morning
Barely anyone to watch this scene.
Fresh dirt by the grave site
and the winter branches clipped so clean
you can go and think of Lazarus. Think of Hamlet, think of Tom T. Hall
Because the world will wait for no man.
and the world awaits us all.